SAULT STE. MARIE — It wasn't the sellout Lake Superior State was hoping for on Great Lake State Weekend, but the largest crowd to see the Lakers play at Taffy Abel Arena since March 4, 2000 did see something that hasn't happened in a long time.

A Saturday home loss.

A season after going undefeated on Saturday nights at home, the Lakers lost 4-2 to Michigan State for its third split of the season in as many series. The Spartans scored two goals to begin the third period and take a 4-1 lead, and Lakers sophomore Stephen Perfetto scored with goalie Kevin Murdock pulled with 3:22 left. The Lakers pressured Spartans goalie Jake Hildebrand, making his first career start, for the final push but couldn't put the puck past him.

"We've put together good first nights of weekends, but the second night we can't seem to ratchet it up a little but," Lakers coach Jim Roque said. "I even took a different approach after the game last night from the first two to kind of mix it up. I got on my guys after the game … enjoy it, but don't be dancing around like you won something."

The Lakers (3-3-0 overall, 1-1-0-0 CCHA) may have to do for a while without junior goaltender Kevin Kapalka, who injured his shoulder during Friday's 3-2 win. Kapalka will get an MRI on Monday and will not travel with the team to Alaska next weekend, Roque said. Adding to the list of injured players of junior assistant captain Kellen Lain, who didn't skate at all this week, and junior forward Colin Campbell, who is out until at least Christmas.

Murdock stopped 33 shots in the loss but struggled at times with positioning and gave up two easy goals in the third while the Lakers were trying to come back from a 2-1 deficit.

Matt Berry scored on the power play for the Spartans, shooting in a

rebound as Murdock was trying to recover the puck, and Anthony Hayes singed a puck over Murdock's left shoulder from the right circle in transition.

"I thought he was OK," Roque said of Murdock, who returned this

weekend after being ineligible the first two weekends of the season.

"I thought in a couple scrambles around the net he's got to get a

little stronger, but Kevin's been through a lot the last month. He's

fine. I wouldn't say he played awesome, but I wouldn't say he played

bad.

"But we've got to help him out a little bit more. We only scored two

goals, and it's hard to win when you only score two goals."

The Lakers pulled Murdock for an extra attacker with 3:40 left in the

Page 2 of 2 - game, and sophomore Stephen Perfetto made the move pay off with 3:22